MISSION AT LITTLE RIVER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 48, 30 November 1899, Page 6

MISSION AT LITTLE RIVER.

(From a correspondent.) At the opening of the mission, conducted by his Lordship the Right Rev. Dr. Grimes and the Very Rev. Dean Foley on Sunday, 13th inst, an illuminated address, which read as follows, was presented to his Lordship :— ' We, the Catholics of Little River, heartily welcome you amongst us once again. Since your last visitation we are aware of the labours and anxieties you have gone through in the cause of Holy Church in different parts of the world. And since your return to your own people your ministrations have been unceasing. We are proud to inform your Lordship that during your absence our spiritual wants have not been neglected, and we are especially grateful to you for allowing to remain amongst such a worthy pastor as the Very Rev. Dean Foley, to whose zeal and devotion we owe under Providence any spiritual advancement we may have made.' The address was signed on behalf of the Catho'.ics of Little River by Messrs. Hanghey, Fahey, Foley, Lonorgan, Keenan,, Breslin, Quealey, and McManus. His Lordship thanked the people of Little River for the manner in which they had received him, and in referring to hi« visit to the Holy See said that apart from, giving an account of his stewardship he had another object in vi«w, namely to start the nucleus of a fund for the erection of a cathedral, as he thought the time was come for a more substantial and imposing edifice than the present building known as the Pro-Cathedral. At the nine o'clock Mass on the morning of the close of the mission, a number of children received their First Communion, and after partaking of some refreshments (kindly provided for them by Mr. and Mrs. M'Manua and Mr. C. D. Rankin), they returned again I to the Church, and after a public examination (by his Lordship) on the Christian doctrine, they received the Sacrament of Confirmation. The subscriptions in aid of the Cathedial building fund at Little River amounted to £180 18s. His Lordship, accompanied by the Very Rev. Dean Foley left on the 1 7th inst. for Akaroa.